Western Vacation

The night before our big Western vacation, I treated mom to a Barry Manilow concert. I figured it was only fair, since she took my friends and me to multiple NSYNC and Justin Timberlake concerts! I only knew a few songs, but it was so much fun watching mom sing the words and loving every minute. When we went up to the escalator to our nose-bleed seats, we were informed that we had been given better seats downstairs! We had excellent seats, because the arena wasn't as full as it normally is.

 

The next morning came very early, as we had a 7am flight. The boys are entertained by any screen in front of them, so they were great travelers. Dorothy, however, was a different story. She wasn't horrible, but she didn't want to be contained.  We were pretty excited when we landed in Boise and got to ride in Papa's Bus (his RV). To break up the trip to La Grande, we stopped at Barry and Amy's new house just outside of Boise. The kids started playing with each other like they had never been separated. Cousins are great!

Once we were in La Grande, we had other opportunities to catch up with cousins. 

Sydney and Lincoln still look so much alike.

Dorothy always wanted to love on Abby. The feeling was not mutual!

 

Wynn and Drake had a great time wrestling Dave.

Just a few days after we got to Oregon, we got back in the car for our big family reunion at Bear Lake. I had never been to Bear Lake, Utah, so I didn't know what to expect. The beauty is so impressive! The lake is so so so blue and clean. This was the view from our rental house.

Dave's niece, Jessie, captured the view in a painting.

There were 35 of us at the house, most of them were kids. The house was perfect for our group: there were lots of activities for people to do (pool table, ping pong table, theater room, indoor trampoline, indoor playground, indoor basketball court, and slides all throughout the house).When we weren't at the lake the kids were having water gun fights, bubble gum blowing competitions, playing human size hungry hippo and jenga, and other fun games adults had prepared.

Most people told us the lake would be freezing cold, and that we probably wouldn't go in. We picked the perfect few days to go, because it was warm enough outside, for us to play in the water. 

Dave's parents rented a boat big enough to fit 17 people, so some people got to wake board, ski, and ride the inner tube.

On our last full day at the house, we were able to celebrate Drake's 4th birthday! My brother Reed and his wife drove up from Salt Lake, so Drake had tons of family singing Happy Birthday. He requested a Bulk Head transformer cake, and Dave delivered.

Dave was able to work remotely the next week, so we spent another week in Oregon. We got to play with more cousins, enjoy time with Dave's high school friend, swim in the hot tub every morning, play at parks, and visit the library for a superhero craft. The boys just really enjoy being at Grandma and Papa's house! The backyard is a child's dream; flat surface to play ball, playground, sandbox, and a huge swing. I let them play outside while I was doing dishes inside. I couldn't see them. so I called their names, and this is what I saw:

They were cold! It was probably 73 degrees with some wind and no humidity. I told them to enjoy it while they could, because our time was winding down. Our neighbors had been telling us how hot NC was. The trip home was a nightmare! Dorothy screamed for most of the 1st flight. People were passing pacifiers and food to us to help us out. Finally after 3 hours, she just stopped. She didn't fall asleep, she just figured the crying wasn't doing anything. When we landed, we found out out next flight had been delayed by 3 hours. Then, once we got on the plane, we had some mechanical issues. We pulled into our driveway at 5am, when we were supposed to land at midnight.

It felt so good to be home, despite the heat and humidity that almost made it hard to breath, when we got off of the plane. We are very lucky to have such wonderful family, and we will continue to try and make them move out to the East Coast!!